The challenge

When a colleague was asked, “why do you do this work?" he told his story:

“Twenty years ago I worked in a large company. I decided to leave. My cynical and bemused boss wanted to understand why I would walk away from a comfortable, safe, well-paid job, with good prospects, to start a business as the world headed into recession. The dominant emotion that drove my motivation, and overcame my many anxieties, was frustration. Frustrated as I watched the enthusiasm of good people ebb, their energy wasted, money and time frittered away. My boss said, “it’s wonderful you still care, my son wants to be an engineer, for his sake I hope you make a difference”. And that’s it – I believe life gives us a responsibility to try and make a difference, to make things better in our own little corner – the challenge is how to do it?”
The back story

This is one story, but any of our colleagues from over the years could tell a similar story. It would have been another place, a different context, but we all strive to make a difference, and our corner has been engineering and the management of projects.

A viable business was created and it has evolved over the years, the current form emerged in 2003, designed to include investment in national infrastructure, with significant work on major rail projects.

Over the years we have been involved with projects with values of thousands, or millions, or billions. The reader might think the bigger the better; greater challenge, greater reward, greater effect, greater kudos, but this is not necessarily the case. It is not about the size of the project, rather the benefit we can bring to our customer, and the cost to them of getting the project wrong versus the benefit of getting it right.
Making a difference

Rail Transport

We made a difference when a consortium won the contract for a major rail project, they found that although they had volumes on the principles and theory of managing rail projects and people with extensive experience, the teams were ineffective, and visibility of what was happening was poor. We created a project domain that provided structure and purpose to the planning team, and introduced systems integration methods. We made visible the latent interdependencies within the contract that they were responsible for, and which exposed the consortium to serious risks that had not been considered. A challenge for the management team, but at least they were aware of the nature of the beast they had taken on.

We made a difference when a client needed help to deal with a major rail project that presented the symptoms of poor leadership, and inexperience. We created a project domain that had to operate at a subliminal level, but guided people away from an abyss. We found the boundaries of their knowledge and experience, and built structures that they could use to take the project forward.
Industrial Infrastructure

We made a difference in a small company that needed to make the strategic capital investment in its facilities, but with severe constraints, i.e. limited cash, existing production could not be disrupted, and the people had no experience of capital investment. We helped them to design a solution that reconciled the constraints, created a project domain through which they managed their own project, and on the way they learnt how to better collaborate, and gained new insights to their operations.

We made a difference when a major international company decided it needed to make a strategic investment in Europe; but which plant should receive the investment? The plants competed, and the security of employment of nearly five hundred people would rest on the decision. One of the plants engaged us and we helped them to win the project. We created the domain that designed, constructed, commissioned and brought into production a very sophisticated industrial plant; it was on time, on cost, and it delivered the quality and quantity of product demanded.
Construction

We made a difference when a small contractor decided to enter the national infrastructure investment sector, even though the tendering process is arduous, expensive, and the chance of success is low. We designed a project domain through which they could form and lead joint ventures. Risk was distributed, collaboration optimised the resource commitment, through the utility in the project domain the company was able to match and beat the quality of tenders produced by competitors many times its size, and at a cost it could afford. In spite of the challenge created by many competitors they won the first tender competition they entered, and success continues.

And the story goes on…….